I grew up in Michigan calling my Michigan-native maternal grandparents "gramma" and "grampa" and my South Carolina-born paternal grandparents "grammaw" and "grampaw".

My Michigan-born wife calls her Kentucky-born grandparents "mamaw" and "papaw", and our children refer to my wife's Kentucky-born parents as "mamaw" and "papaw". But the kids also call my parents "gramma" and "poppa".

After all that, I've settled on calling all grandparents - whoever they are and wherever they're from - "grammaw" and "grampaw".

Fat <Man Whose Parents Never Married> looks like he's in need of some joint replacement.

My father's parents divorced before I was born, and my mother's father was a widower. I called my father's father Grandpap and his second wife Libbi (her name). I called my father's mother Nana and her husband Ted (his name). I knew Nana was my grandmother, but from the earliest I called her Nana, and she called herself Nana or Nanny. I called my mother's father what everyone else called him: Ferg (short for Ferguson, his first name). My wife's cousin's daughter used to call her mother Barbara instead of Mom because that's that everyone else called her.

Regards//Larry

"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them." -- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee

I called my grandparents Grandma and Grandpa. My oldest grandchild calls me Grammie and my husband Opa. The younger ones call us Oma and Opa. They call their other grandparents Grandma and either Poppy or Papa. For those that don't know Oma and Opa are of German origin and we use it because my husband comes from Germany. My oldest was going to call me Grandma B but since my mother was still alive she claimed the name(both our first names start with a B and my last name starts with a B)and I settled for Grammie.

Odd to think about the differences in family appelations. On my dad's side it was Mema (mee mah) Smith and Papa (pap pah) Smith, I think to distinguish between maternal and paternal in-laws of my dad's older brother and sister. They had children before my dad was married. On my mom's side it was Nana and Papa (pop uh) Jones, he was her third husband and our step granddad. When my sister and brother and I had children our grandmother was still Nana and my mother became Nannie and my father became Granpa with last names occationally added to tell between in-laws.

For no particular reason, the latest entries in this thread remind me of an old bluegrass comedic song, I Am My Own Grandpa. (The premise is that a young man marries a widow, who has a daughter that marries the young man's father.)

"Time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening all at once. Lately it hasn't been working."Anonymous

I remember that song, my dad used to play it all the time. His father and stepmother/stepdaughter have a son who ends up being his half brother and his grandson and great-grandson. Then he and his wife have a baby and it only gets more complicated after that.

They just did. A boy stopped me on the street and asked, "Senhor, que horas são?" (Sir, what time is it?). I need not tell you I instantly remembered this thread.

Brazilian dude

As you may know from your visits here, Dude, it is a sad day the first time a woman is (at least up north!) "ma'am'd". The most horrible thing about being "ma'am'd" is that, somehow, everyone she ever meets, from that day forth, can somehow sense that she has been "ma'am'd" and will refer to her as such.

More socially damning than the Scarlet Letter: it's the Blue-Rinse M...

I still remember the day I was happily minding my own business when suddenly--and without provocation--some smart-assed, chicken-chested, inbred, beardless-wonder bag boy "ma'am'd" me! But I'm not bitter about it...

-gailr

On the other hand, look on the bright side, Dude. Now you can start appealing to all those girls who like older men.

It's funny how some people take offense to this ma'am/sir business. It's used quite a bit here in Texas as well as the rest of the South. My husband "yes ma'am's" and "no ma'am's" me as well as his 8 year-old daughter and I do, too. It's just a common way of addressing others with courtesy and respect. It's heard more often in small towns but still used quite a bit in the big city.

Stargzer wrote: ...from the earliest I called her Nana, and she called herself Nana or Nanny...

The 3rd person reference reminds me to wonder again why parents, in teaching talk to toddlers, are so often observed referring to themselves in the 3rd person rather than first. Seems that would add to the confusion of learning language. My brother and his wife did this, resulting in my niece referring to herself by her own name rather than "I".

As for us, we had the creativity-challenged appellations "Grandmom" and "Grandad". Due to Mom's status as youngest of brood, her parents were gone before we grew up, so a 2nd set of names never came up.

GoCat wrote:It's funny how some people take offense to this ma'am/sir business. It's used quite a bit here in Texas as well as the rest of the South.

Yes'm, also reminds me how I learned by visiting Southern relatives the practice of asking for repetition through "Sir?" or Ma'am?" to one's elders, a practice unknown in the North.

But there seems a vast difference between showing respect for one's elders and being viewed as an elder. Gail's opus on "being ma'amed" is spot-on for both genders. It was aptly demonstrated in a recent commercial (for I have no idea what) where guy in convertible is accosted by spritely young nymph who then addresses him "Sir..?" (cut to guy's crestfallen face)... when one hears Sir or Ma'am for the first time addressed to oneself, playtime is over!

gailr wrote:I still remember the day I was happily minding my own business when suddenly--and without provocation--some smart-assed, chicken-chested, inbred, beardless-wonder bag boy "ma'am'd" me! But I'm not bitter about it...

Allow me to revert back to my ghetto days for a moment if you will, by allowing me to say, "Get down with your bad self, gailr!" O.K., now I feel better. And remember, like in Yoga, breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth...that's it...good...

"What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compaired to what lies inside us." R.W.E.